I saw Lou Barlow solo (but with a guitarist and drummer) last night on the eve of a tour opening for Dinosaur Jr. I know, it sounds like a pretty weird plan considering how Lou still talks on stage about how he's afraid of J Mascis. Anyway, his sidemen were very supportive and nice and there was a general mood of good cheer.

For some reason, Lou had decided to dispense with a bass player and instead had this pedal rig on the floor, which appeared to make it a bit more difficult to deliver the material, what with having to do three things at once. He got pretty frustrated with the set-up a few times, but hung in there and delivered a solid set.

After the set proper, we were treated to 45 mins to an hour of just Lou, while the band sold t-shirts and CDs, fielding requests and joking around. I'm just a casual fan and after a while I was beginning to have had enough poignant vulnerability, but the crowd was going pretty mental. A two hour show, more or less.

Opening was John Devries, formerly of Poughkeepsie's finest, Agitpop. Nice to see him around again.